FMC in the News

It?s been nearly a decade since the digital music genie burst out of its bottle, changing the game for virtually everyone in the music ecosystem. Future of Music Policy Summit 2009 features practical, musician-focused workshops, keynotes from leading artists, managers and policymakers and inspired panel discussions with the sharpest minds in the music/technology/policy space.

It’s been nearly a decade since the digital music genie burst out of its bottle, changing the game for virtually everyone in the music ecosystem. Future of Music Policy Summit 2009 features practical, musician-focused workshops, keynotes from leading artists, managers and policymakers and inspired panel discussions with the sharpest minds in the music/technology/policy space.

On one side, we have an entrenched and powerful industry, ominously suggesting that this new legislation will eliminate services, wreak hardship on the land, maybe even put folks out of business. On the other side, we find advocates for change arguing for a measure they view as lifesaving. And they’re damning the old guard for using scare tactics, brute muscle and misuse of the public trust to unfairly defend the status quo. . .

…The [Public Performance Right] bills under consideration in the House and Senate stipulate that the estimated 75 percent of U.S. stations that gross less than $1.25 million annually would pay “no more than $5,000 in performance royalties, and in many cases it would be a lot less than that,” says Casey Rae-Hunter, another advocate who works with the Future of Music Coalition. read more

Ain’t technology grand? File sharing has made it possible to download what you want, when you want, and how you want. And a whole generation of i-Tunes and Napster aficionados are used to getting it all for free (or nearly so). As a result, one industry’s being left in the dust. The recording industry, once a giant wing of entertainment, is struggling to survive, and to protect its content. FMC’s Walter McDonough speaks on WITF’s “Smart Talk” program about how these changes have impacted the recorded music industry.

[…]Thankfully, there are a number of organizations out there to help musicians secure insurance, whether they must buy it on their own or can take advantage of plans offered by various musician labor unions (like NARAS, BMI, ASCAP and the American Federation of Musicians) – though these typically do not cost much less than standard HMO plans. The most prominent of these is the Future of Music Coalition, whose Health Insurance Navigation Tool (HINT) launched in 2005 to provide basic information about available options as well as a free telephone advice service staffed by insurance experts.

Nearly four years ago the four largest commercial radio owners promised to play more independent music as part of FCC consent decrees resulting from recent payola investigations. Future of Music Coalition has been tracking radio playlists to see if commercial stations have been keeping their promises. FMC?s Kristin Thomson joins the Mediageek Radioshow to discuss the situation.

McCaughey: I recently attended a retreat in New Orleans sponsored and led by the Future Of Music Coalition and Air Traffic Control, with the added participation of local organizations like Sweet Home New Orleans. There was sort of a dual purpose to the gathering: facilitating activism in the music community, as well as showing how local activism in New Orleans is helping the city and its musicians recover from the disaster of Katrina.

According to an April 29, 2009 report by the Future of Music Coalition entitled “Same Old Song” , in the two years since FCC fines were levied against corporate radio for payola — resulting in those stations promising to play both more local and independent artists — “the report indicates almost no measurable change in station playlist composition over the past four years.”

Moore first met Morello in November 2006 when the guitarist came to New Orleans for a Future of Music Coalition concert at Tipitina’s. Two nights before the benefit, Moore performed at a party at the Mother-in-Law Lounge that Morello attended.
As Moore recalled, Morello said, “Ask anybody who knows me — I hate drummers. But you’ve done nothing to offend me. You’re my new favorite drummer.”
At Tipitina’s, they briefly shared the stage; Moore also performed with trombone collective Bonerama.